Transcripts of VNEssay
Hello everyone, I'm Oanh Vu, I'm from Vietnam And I'm a sophomore in the Ohio State University I've been in the US for three years Start my junior of high school here And this is my Literacy Narrative It's about my experience when I studied English in Vietnam No, studied Literature in Vietnam Affect my writing in English when I came to the US In Vietnam, we discuss a paragraph of a novel for one or two weeks And then - the teacher discussed with us about how to write the essay and what should we write in it And we have a 90-minute exam just to write down whatever we remember from the discussion When I came to the US, the difficulty is I cannot think by myself how to write the essay and I cannot brainstorm what should I write So, basically in the US writing essays is more about critical thinking it's not about writing what we remember like it was in Vietnam So I kind of confused at first and then I tried to adapt how to write better essay in the future I - tried to get used to the brainstorming steps I go meet with my teacher more oaften and we discuss more about the essay try to make a better outline before I write my first draft
[ Interviewer ] So, from what I understand is that so in Vietnam they kinda taught you the way to think what kind of stuff you need to write in the essay Like, they don't really allow you to see what you might see in the novel or - like - write what you think the novel is about and stuff? Am I correct?
Yea, well, while we discussed there were some of my ideas in there but it's more about the teachers' ideas So basically I just remembered whatever they say and write my essay So there's only one draft that was was given to the teacher, it's my grade
[ Interviewer ] So, how long did you guys get to, like discuss the essay, like, the novel in Vietnam? I mean, like, you were talking about discussions and stuff, so how long did you get to discuss about the novel before that 90minute essay exam?
We actually had a really long time, like one or two weeks.
[ Interviewer ] So, how long would the paragraph of the novel be? Cuz it's unlike America, where we actually read several novels and write about them, like, the actual whole book I don't know like, how long was the paragraph in the novel in Vietnam? It's - a paragraph - it's like about one page and then when we write the essay it's like, a four-page essay
[ Interviewer ] Wow
The longer the better. The longer the better That's how I remember it
[ Interviewer ] So, you guys have all that ideas to write about that four-pages essay from the discussion when the teacher was basically discussed whatever you should write about. Ok It's very different from the US.
It is very different.
[ Interviewer ] How did it take you to, like adapt to and basically, you know, being able to write an essay that you think was acceptable when - you came to the US Like, how long did it take you to adapt?
Took me like - half a year.
[ Interviewer ] Half a year? Well, it's not really bad I mean, you can basically pull your grades up and stuff by then. Alright, thank you for sharing your story.